Many methods have been suggested for utilizing biofuel for energy production in order to compensate for at least a portion of the fossil fuel currently used in such energy production, and thereby also decrease net CO2 emissions in the overall energy production cycle. See, e.g., Huber et al., “Synthesis of Transportation Fuels from Biomass: Chemistry, Catalysts, and Engineering,” Chem. Rev., vol. 106, pp. 4044-4098, 2006.
Unfortunately, biofeedstocks are generally considered to be low energy fuels, and not easily utilized for energy production. The low energy content of biomass renders it generally inadequate for high-efficiency production of energy, such as high-temperature, high-pressure steam or electricity. Additionally, non-uniformity in the raw material (i.e., biomass), differences in its quality, and other similar hard-to-control variations, may cause problems in an energy production cycle that relies heavily on such fuel.
In view of the foregoing, methods and/or systems for enhancing and/or integrating a variety of biofuel synthesis routes with each other, and/or with traditional refinery processes, would be extremely useful—particularly wherein they can provide dynamic adaptability in terms of their ability to accommodate change in either or both of their feedstock material and their product stream(s).